British journalists and other foreign nationals have been freed from a Tripoli hotel after five days of being held captive by forces loyal to Gaddafi. However, it has been revealed that four Italian reporters were abducted and their driver killed as they made their way towards the capital.

The son and heir apparent of Libyan leader
Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam, resurfaced free and defiant early today a day after rebels claimed to have captured him, boasting in a bizarre reappearance that his father's loyalists still control parts of Tripoli and would crush the rebellion.